OT(kinda) -My Career goal

Well, this is slightly off topic..kind of.. but since a lot of you probably deal with occupational therapists in your busy lives, i thought you might like to know you have in your midst a budding hope-to-be-in-near-future.. occupational therapist! I realized that being an OT would combine teaching, medicine and social work, 3 of my strongest interests, and occupational therapists are in HIGH demand. I hope to eventually do pediatirics, but i might start out as a generalist, since a lot of the demand seems to stem from geriatric populations..so i could work with both kids and adults to provide a stable income, then when i paid off my Master's, i could focus on pediatrics..but i have a long time before i have to plan that. The only thing stopping me from starting pursuit of the degree is the fact i'm still in debt from my undergrad degree in sociology, and my mom wants me to pay that off before i take on any more debt.

Hi, nice career goal. My advice for you if you become an OT is to keep an open mind. Listen to everything your patients tell you as they know their bodies better then anyone else does. Have a dialogue with your patients and build a relationship based on trust. If the person trusts you they will be more willing to do what they need to do in the therapy. If you work with children DON'T act like you know more than the parents do. When I had an OT the OT did not respect my mothers' rules/wishes and it made things very difficult for us.

Thank you for the advice. It is true that no one knows a child better than the parents of that child. I have read many stories where the doctor or therapist is being very pessimistic about the outcome of a child's development, and the parents somehow knew that they would be capable of having a full life, and persisted. As far as building trust, that is very important. One thing that might help in that is if i were to work with children on the autistic spectrum, the parents knowing that i myself am on the spectrum may reassure them that I have their best interests at heart, that i have an insight about what their child might be going through, and possible means of addressing it. When i was a counselor at Bay Cliff, they taught us and told us to listen to the campers, since they are the experts in their care. The same is probably true with the OT-patient relationship. The patient is ultimately to judge whether or not the intervention is working.

The material on this site is for information & support purposes only, and is not a substitute for medical advice provided by a licensed health care provider.
Always consult your doctor before trying anything that you find online.